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A sure sign a new software technology has arrived is when it shows up in job listings as a required skill. OpenStack has enjoyed such a rise, and server-side JavaScript framework Node.js has also made steady gains.

According to statistics from job search site Indeed.com, job notices involving Node.js has jumped from zero to 4,000 active listings since 2011. Salaries for Node.js development jobs start somewhere in the $60,000 range and can reach as high as $140,000. The exact job descriptions vary, though; some are highly Node.js-focused (Senior Node Developer), while others list Node.js as part of a mix of requirements for a more general full-stack developer position.

Even if the Node.js job pool is still tiny compared to positions involving other, better-established Web languages and frameworks, its relative rate of growth within the same time period is striking. Python, for instance, enjoys a greater pool of jobs (around 31,000 at last count), but those numbers crested in 2013. Ruby (18,750 listings) has followed much the same pattern; in fact, Ruby and Python movements track each other closely enough to hint at the two being commonly deployed together. Java listings have been trending steadily downward since 2010.

It's difficult to say whether this reflects Node.js's general novelty as a rush of early adoption gets underway and enterprises satisfy their curiosity about what the framework can do for them. But there's clearly an interest in replacing many older architectures with Node.js. LinkedIn swapped Ruby on Rails for Node.js, a move that Gartner analyst Jason Wong says "gave [LinkedIn] substantial performance and scalability increases and agility to address the integration needs of a changing client-side strategy."

To that end, some Node.js job listings also say candidates need expertise in the frameworks created for Node. Less clear is what percentage of those job descriptions aim to find security-conscious Node.js developers -- worth keeping in mind amid concerns about Node.js security.

A comparative search at Dice.com for Node.js jobs turned up a much smaller pool for listings: 860 jobs out of around 78,000, as opposed to the 821,000 or so in Indeed's system. The actual number of job listings on Dice is smaller, but Dice's job pool is more focused on IT, so the proportion of Node.js jobs to the rest is higher.